Hey all!
Just like the title says, I just finished the second editing pass on my high-ish fantasy novel and I'm just not quite sure what to do or where to go next. I never really intended on 'doing' anything with this, I just had a story in my head I wanted to get out. Here we are, two years later and I truthfully never thought I'd 'finish' it, let alone consider presenting it to anyone or anything like that but now that I'm here and the work is done (not really, I'm sure there's more to do but you know what I mean) I curious about what others in this stage have found helpful. What steps did you take to get your work seen by those that could actually assist going to the 'next level'? I know the general consensus on trad publishing is that it's a long shot, but the self-publishing route comes with far too much social-media and auctioning-off of my personhood that I'm hesitant of going that route. I'm also ok if this never leaves my hard-drive, but I figured having spent two years working out what I wanted to say, how to say it, and to build the world that I've built, it would be at least worthwhile to see what the world thinks of my work.
Anyway, any and all insight would be helpful. I can post a snippet if it's helpful or interesting to people. I landed at almost exactly 135K words and it's driven by many characters, but we follow four individuals for the most part, of varied and unique backgrounds, as they are forced together in unique circumstances and try to navigate a chessboard of much larger and more powerful actors within their world. I know, super original, but I have a voice that I think is unique, a world that is familiar and yet strange and new in it's own right, and strong potential for an expansive literary universe.